Old Atrocities, New Media: Terror Images and the Visual-Military Complex. This research centres on the relations between twenty-first century visual technologies and the age-old practice of the massacre-atrocity. It takes as its major case study the atrocities at the end of the war in Sri Lanka in 2009. The most graphic form of knowledge about these mass deaths and rapes was produced through digitally transmitted visual images. The research asks how new forms of recording and circulating images ....Old Atrocities, New Media: Terror Images and the Visual-Military Complex. This research centres on the relations between twenty-first century visual technologies and the age-old practice of the massacre-atrocity. It takes as its major case study the atrocities at the end of the war in Sri Lanka in 2009. The most graphic form of knowledge about these mass deaths and rapes was produced through digitally transmitted visual images. The research asks how new forms of recording and circulating images of atrocity, whether in the form of trophy photographs or other digital documents, shape the reception of, and responses to, atrocity. These questions are contextualised against a broader examination of the historical and evolving relations between visual media and atrocity images from the Holocaust to Abu Ghraib.Read moreRead less
Avatars and Identities. The avatar, a virtual representation of its user, is the key element of interface technology for everyday computer use in the twenty-first century. While specialist aspects of the avatar have received intensive attention from the technology industries and scholars, the focus of the work to date has been on the technical efficiency of the interface, rather than understanding the full social implications of its use. Through a historical, ethnographic and critical analysis o ....Avatars and Identities. The avatar, a virtual representation of its user, is the key element of interface technology for everyday computer use in the twenty-first century. While specialist aspects of the avatar have received intensive attention from the technology industries and scholars, the focus of the work to date has been on the technical efficiency of the interface, rather than understanding the full social implications of its use. Through a historical, ethnographic and critical analysis of the role of the avatar, in consultation with industry, this project offers a unique opportunity to develop a wider perspective that will contribute to an understanding of the uses and policies for the digital economy.Read moreRead less
Representing Kanaks: Generic Variation, Identity, and the Politics of the Everyday Semiotic. The project hypothesizes that representational struggles over indigenous identity are crucially shaped by the range of genres in which identity is asserted. Through the case of Kanaks in New Caledonia, as represented by several everyday genres hitherto neglected by scholarship, the representational politics of indigeneity are interrogated with the aim of demonstrating that Kanak existence is constituted ....Representing Kanaks: Generic Variation, Identity, and the Politics of the Everyday Semiotic. The project hypothesizes that representational struggles over indigenous identity are crucially shaped by the range of genres in which identity is asserted. Through the case of Kanaks in New Caledonia, as represented by several everyday genres hitherto neglected by scholarship, the representational politics of indigeneity are interrogated with the aim of demonstrating that Kanak existence is constituted in the semiotic detail of everyday generic variation. The project's significance lies in its radical reconception of identity and representational politics: going beyond indigenous versus colonial binaries, it reveals the complexity of day-to-day competition over and consolidation of indigenous identity through representational systems.Read moreRead less
Contact zones: activism, art and media in Italy, 1994-2006. This project will generate knowledge about recent activism, social change and contemporary art practices in Italy; it will add to Australia's international reputation as a centre of research on contemporary Italy; it will assist in facilitating cultural relations between Australia and Italy as already established in cultural and scientific bilateral agreements.
Spectopolis: Theme Park Worlds, their History and Significance for Contemporary Culture. This project will outline the historical development of the theme park, evaluating the significance of the growing interest in theme park cultures in recent years. Parallels that exist between C17th and late C20th/C21st entertainment spectacles will be explored, including the formal connections that exist between theme parks and C17th aristocratic gardens, villas, and theatrical spectacles. In comparing both ....Spectopolis: Theme Park Worlds, their History and Significance for Contemporary Culture. This project will outline the historical development of the theme park, evaluating the significance of the growing interest in theme park cultures in recent years. Parallels that exist between C17th and late C20th/C21st entertainment spectacles will be explored, including the formal connections that exist between theme parks and C17th aristocratic gardens, villas, and theatrical spectacles. In comparing both eras, the project will theoretically evaluate the cultural significance of our current fascination with spectacle environments. In comparing the C17th and late C20th/C21st attraction with such spectacular spaces, it is proposed that we are witnessing a return to a culture of the baroque.Read moreRead less
The History of Theme Parks and their Cultural Significance for Contemporary Society. This project will outline the historical development of the theme park, evaluating the significance of the growing interest in theme park cultures in recent years. The formal connections between theme parks and earlier C16th and C17th theatrical spectacles, and garden and villa designs will be of primary focus. In returning to these earlier historical sources, it is proposed that we are returning to a culture of ....The History of Theme Parks and their Cultural Significance for Contemporary Society. This project will outline the historical development of the theme park, evaluating the significance of the growing interest in theme park cultures in recent years. The formal connections between theme parks and earlier C16th and C17th theatrical spectacles, and garden and villa designs will be of primary focus. In returning to these earlier historical sources, it is proposed that we are returning to a culture of the baroque (and its delight in spectacular spaces). In turn, the social and cultural implications of such a return will be a central concern.Read moreRead less
Through the Lens: A Cultural Study of Women's Fashion Photography in Australia, 1890 to 2000. This study supports growing academic interests in Australian fashion and provides the nascent fashion industry, and the media, with a cultural and historical context for their current practices. It sets up debate and expands available information about local fashion photography, challenging the assumption that it is solely dependent on overseas ideas and practices. It has the further potential to export ....Through the Lens: A Cultural Study of Women's Fashion Photography in Australia, 1890 to 2000. This study supports growing academic interests in Australian fashion and provides the nascent fashion industry, and the media, with a cultural and historical context for their current practices. It sets up debate and expands available information about local fashion photography, challenging the assumption that it is solely dependent on overseas ideas and practices. It has the further potential to export understandings of Australian fashion and its photographic representation, including its creative and aesthetic aspects, and by implication will assist the fashion industry, and the public, develop understanding of its workings.Read moreRead less
Dynamic media: innovative social and artistic developments in new media in Australia, Britain, Canada and Scandinavia since 1990. This study will foreground strengths and remedy weaknesses in Australian new media arts and innovative social uses of new media. By studying the international strategies for social use of dynamic media, this study will provide information for Australians to more extensively implement dynamic media within a social context. It will highlight the innovation of Australian ....Dynamic media: innovative social and artistic developments in new media in Australia, Britain, Canada and Scandinavia since 1990. This study will foreground strengths and remedy weaknesses in Australian new media arts and innovative social uses of new media. By studying the international strategies for social use of dynamic media, this study will provide information for Australians to more extensively implement dynamic media within a social context. It will highlight the innovation of Australian artists and researchers in the development of dynamic media and position these internationally. A major long-term benefit of this study will be an online database that will both profile and be accessible to Australian artists, arts organizations, new media researchers and social innovators. Read moreRead less
The Internationalisation Of Charlie Chaplin's Tramp. This project is a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary study of the multifarious reincarnations of Charlie Chaplin's The Tramp across the world's film, theatre, television and advertising industries over the last nine decades. The project examines the appeal of Chaplin's Tramp in different languages and cultures, and the ways in which the figure has been adapted, translated, reconfigured and indigenised for local audiences and their individu ....The Internationalisation Of Charlie Chaplin's Tramp. This project is a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary study of the multifarious reincarnations of Charlie Chaplin's The Tramp across the world's film, theatre, television and advertising industries over the last nine decades. The project examines the appeal of Chaplin's Tramp in different languages and cultures, and the ways in which the figure has been adapted, translated, reconfigured and indigenised for local audiences and their individual contexts and traditions. The Internationalisation Of Chaplin's Tramp draws on theoretical perspectives and methodologies from screen studies, history, the visual arts, anthropology and cultural studies and the writing and production practices of documentary film.Read moreRead less
Cinematic Imaginations: American Literature and the Visual Media, 1905-1945. The advent of new visual media in the late C19th, and their rapid growth and industrialization in the 20th, obliged the traditional forms of literature to change. This project investigates that change in the American context, as a set of interlinked adaptations, in both literature and cinema, to more general social changes in an emergent mass-production economy. Arguing for a ?media ecology?, the project's originality i ....Cinematic Imaginations: American Literature and the Visual Media, 1905-1945. The advent of new visual media in the late C19th, and their rapid growth and industrialization in the 20th, obliged the traditional forms of literature to change. This project investigates that change in the American context, as a set of interlinked adaptations, in both literature and cinema, to more general social changes in an emergent mass-production economy. Arguing for a ?media ecology?, the project's originality is to establish a viable model for analysing this shift in the complexion of a culture, in terms of an explosive expansion of the cultural economy.Read moreRead less